Alex Sapir picks up $13M Chelsea townhouse for family member

UPDATE: April 17, 2019, 7:00 a.m.: The head of Sapir Corp. has snagged a seven-bedroom townhouse in Chelsea, but he won’t be living in it.

Alex Sapir, through a limited liability corporation, dropped about $12.7 million on a six-story mansion with its own basement pool at 253 West 18th Street, property records filed Tuesday show.

Sapir, who recently moved to South Florida, bought the home for a family member, a source said.

A message left with Sapir, whose publicly traded Sapir Corp. is building up its business in South Florida, wasn’t immediately returned. The Corcoran Group’s Rick Hanley represented Sapir in the deal and said the townhouse was bought renovated and fully furnished.

Nest Seekers International’s Ryan Serhant and Cameron Culver represented the seller, an investment group that at one time included South Florida-based investor Allerand Capital.

From left: Ryan Serhant, Cameron Culver and Rick Hanley

When reached for comment, a representative for Allerand said they exited the property a few years ago, though the person could not immediately identify the remaining partner.

The sellers bought the property in 2014 for just over $7 million. Culver declined to comment.

The 26-foot-wide townhouse spans 8,300 square feet and has an extra 1,130 square feet of outdoor space. The master bedroom takes up the entire third floor and has a private balcony and gas fireplace.

Brown Harris Stevens listed the property in 2017 for just under $20 million, according to StreetEasy. Then Nest Seekers marketed it for $17.5 million a year ago, a price that then dropped to $14.9 million in September.

The residential deal is not the only one Sapir, son of the late real estate developer Tamir Sapir, has made of late. A year ago, Sapir bought a home for $17 million in Miami Beach’s Venetian Islands, as Sapir Corp. began to increase its presence in the region.

Back in New York, the real estate mogul is reportedly trying to sell his five-bedroom apartment at 447 West 18th Street, also known as the Chelsea Modern, that he had bought in 2014 for about $9.4 million.

The Internal Revenue Service last year accused the estate of Sapir’s father, which Alex controls, of filing false tax returns in 2010 in order to reduce the amount of taxes the investor paid when he sold his 49 percent stake in 11 Madison. In March, the U.S. Tax Court ruled that the estate did not underpay taxes in 2010, it does not owe any additional taxes, and that there is no penalty due as well.

Update: This article was updated to add the U.S. Tax Court’s ruling from last month.